New York rushes to prevent intrusive driveways

New York's planners and City Council have acted with stunning swiftness to protect rowhouse neighborhoods from owners who want to convert their ground floors into garages. The issue of intrusive curb cuts, driveways, and garages suddenly gained municipal attention in March when a judge ruled that existing city regulations could not prevent owners from building new driveways in existing rowhouse blocks.

The owners of a residence on Manhattan's Upper East Side had fought through the courts to overturn a municipal restriction on constructing new driveways on lots that are less than 40 feet wide. The ruling gave a couple on East 94th Street the go-ahead to install a driveway to a new garage in the ground floor of a brownstone rowhouse dating back to 1899. The New York Times, in an August 1 article available here, reported that the Planning Department quickly responded — revising the city's planning resolution, with support from City Council. 

Planning Commissioner Amanda burden said that as a result of the revisions, rowhouse neighborhoods "will remain intact and unmarred by the intrusion of curb cuts that have recently raised red flags." Under an amendment approved by Council, the planning commission can deny permission for a curb cut that it finds "inconsistent with the character of the existing streetscape."